In the country of The Sons of Light

Ari Livsker, 4th October 2012

Rituals before a salad, life by the belief of the extinct Mayan culture and free love also after already
having children. The Galactic community in the Galil found its own way to turn life into a
continuous Shanti festival, and almost dragged me inside.
Jat Ginat Shlom Adama (Jat is the name of the settlement, Ginat Shlom Adama is the name of this place they live in).
Established: 2009 in the West of the Galil
The People: around 20 young spiritual seekers
Escaping from: Life in a charm-less world

My journey begins through rubble in a Mediterranean woodland. Behind the Druze village Jat.
Shelly (common Israeli name, means Mine), a member of Ginat Shlom Adama (in free translation it
means Garden of Nature Peace), guiding me on the phone how to find her. Her instructions was crystal
clear. Quickly I reach near the main building of the community, the big Mother House that is built out of
wood, that is also the home of their altar. But Shelly tells me to continue down the rubble path. Shes inside
of an improvised kitchen that was raised up for the upcoming small festival that the community plans for
the next days.

Shelly who looks a little under the age of 30, is wearing a Flax fabric cloth (Flachs in German) that bolds her
proud back and her browned shoulders. On the ground, there lies a baby, who isnt more than 6 month old,
without clothes and with a piece of wood in her mouth. I ask Shelly if the baby is hers, and she explains that
the baby came here and adopted her. She belongs to the Cosmos, to the Galaxy. People and babies do not
belong to someone, she tells me, and examines from my toes to the tip of my head. Then she offers I change
my denim jeans into something more ventilated like a ravel or some cotton cloth. At that moment, I
understand that I have arrived.

Listen, you came in a day that is focused on doing, so just blend-in somehow because I dont really have time
to explain to you what is going on. You can help us cutting veggies into a salad, she says. Next to us theres a
group of bearded young men (DREI TAGE BARTS) in flax pants and earth colored blazers instead of shirts,
sticking pegs into the ground, for a net that will provide the people with shadow. One of them is a curly-hair
guy with a smile that bolds healthy teeth, his name is Noam (also a common Israeli name, means
Pleasant), I coordinated my visit with him a week before I came. He turns to me, but before he shakes my
hand, he and Shelly are kissing and exchanging meaningful words of affection. With the sandals and the
simple clothes, Noam reminds me of the looks of people in Biblical times, or at least the Hollywood version
that I am familiar with. Theres going to be something huge here, hes saying, about the festival, We are
going to establish an artistic motion that will change the energies of the world. But now if you would excuse
me, we are focused on doing. So hang around and make an impression of it.

(In the photo, Shelly and the children in the Mother House, in the background the Mayan calendar)

I enter to the Mother House, taking a peak into the veggies and fruits pantry, and I also see the solarelectricity-system. Operation of independence from the companies of Electricity and Gas, that I will meet in
other places of my journey as well. The system is connected into a set of electric sockets, and there are
cellular phone chargers connected to the sockets. In a big elevated space, next to a table, that soon enough I
discovered is their altar, two young women are sitting, drawing circle shapes on a big fabric and preparing
signs that will explain about the many workshops in the festival.

In another space, surrounded by curtains and in the center a fireplace thats surrounded by mattresses, a
tourist from Belgium and a tourist from Germany are sitting and collecting dried Lavender leaves in small
canvas bags, and a bright-skinned Israeli woman sitting with them and breastfeeding her baby. The Belgian
girl lived in Western Turkey for two and a half years, and now shes here. And the German girl came here
after she fell in love with an Israeli guy.
A shofar sound announces that the food is ready, and around 20 people of the community need to come eat
around the improvised kitchen area. Ido (Another common Israeli name), one of the bearded men who
earlier stuck pegs into the ground, starts playing the guitar and singing in Spanish. The song is a repetitive
saying on a sentence that goes something like: The nature is me, the nature heals, the nature is me, the
nature heals. The present people start singing the sentence almost whispering, while the community and
its guests are holding hands, closing their eyes and being quiet. Someone sounds a long humming Om
sound, and the rest are joining him. And when the humming stops, they all join their palms together and
lifting them upwards, staying like this for a while, taking them down near their face, like in an Indian hello
gesture. Then, they kneel down and bow to the center of the circle and repeat the Mantra Eem takoyseen
which means We are all everything, We are all one.
When the plates were served, a few said the traditional Jewish food greeting, other thanked god in their
own ways. I examined the lentil casserole and the two types of salad. Their hygiene seemed doubtful, but
their taste was wonderful, and the freshness of the vegetables was great.

After the meal, when the people sang and played instruments in a relaxed manner, they open a big carton
box that arrived from the brothers in Mexico. As Ido reads and simultaneously translates the letter of
the brothers, the others are opening the carton box, to take the plant seeds and the oils that the Mexican
sent out of it. Someone wonders also if theres Peyote (hallucination drug that is produced of cactus),. But
the box contained mainly of Mayan style jewelries that were made in Mexico. Yasmin, who brought the box,
starts crying and says she cant deal anymore with the longing to their Mexican family, while they still take
out things out of the box. Then Noam reminds the people this isnt exactly a gift, and that they have paid for
the shipping and the jewelries, for they are for sale in the festival.

After everyone have split to their own business, the woman who was breastfeeding the baby in the Mother
House and another lady, with a slightly provocative back cleavage, asked me for help in moving and
placing a big eagle statue that is made out of branches and thorns, and then they consulted with Ido where
to place the statue, in the entrance of the community or in the central gathering area. The consulting was
full with words of praise and encouragement towards one another, but without any decision. Eventually,
Noa, the one with the back cleavage, said that they should keep pondering on where to place it, but she feels
that right now they should enlarge the wings of t he Eagle.

(Left to right: Shelly, Noam and Aharon)

Ido and I are walking towards a big dome tent down the valley. On our way we pass by a resident tent, and I
also notice a few parking cars, that belong to the members of the community. In the tent that Ido showed
me, they will open the center for arts and Galactic creations.
The people of Shlom Adama have adopted the Mayan calendar, a civilization that existed in America for
3,000 years, and then started to fade in the centuries of wars and increasing poverty, until the Spanish
arrived to America and erased it completely. The Mayan calendar, that is considered amazingly accurate,
divides the time into days, months, years, generations of 20 years, and eras which every era is 20
generations. Ido explains: The calendar of modern Western society is for the purpose of taxes and bills, in the
Western calendar: Time is money. Among us, in the Mayan Calendar, Time is Art, time is not related to the
being and to money. It is invested in life, and you dont work for it. Everybody are in the state of art, Everybody
are working for creation, that is a communal creation and that is how they open up.

On the way to the tent we stop next to a tall awkward guy with grey hairs and a helmet hair-style, hes the
oldest person Ive seen here so far. Him and a young man with blonde dreadlocks who does not speak
Hebrew were putting seedlings into the ground. The old guys name is Ofer Israeli, and hes the land owner
of the place where the community of Adamat Shalom are residing, but Ido explains to me that in fact, by the
frequency of time of their community, the land belongs to no one. He points to the mountain in front of us
and says: You see, this is the land of ancestors, you can just come there and sit. You do not need permission
from anyone, you have the approval of Mother Nature. Thats the widespread country. Do, seed, live, invite
people to live with you, and live with them in a communal life-style. We are also living in a full telepathic cooperation with our brothers all around the world. For instance, we are right now in contact with Ginat
Shalom in Argentina that is known as Mono Electrico Azule. And then he stopped, looked into the sky, and
roared: BLESS ARGENTINA!

So how did you come to have this community in the Galil and not anywhere else?
We looked all around Israel. And we knew we wanted to do it in Israel. The formal name of the garden is
Ginat Shlom Zion (Garden of Zion Peace). When we came here, the pieces fell together. And we are here for
four years now.
The community of the Galactic Mayan culture Ginat Shlom Adama was born in Ramat HaSharon,
Israel. Ido and Noam, 28 years of age, were growing up sometime around the 90s, in the multi-channel
Israel. They studied philosophy in high school and went to spiritual festival, from Rainbow to
Bumbamella (names of Festivals). Rainbow Gathering The inspiration to the principals of the
community they live in today, is a festival that is happening in more than one country around the world
every year since the 60s, then lead by hippies who wanted to re-create the atmosphere of Woodstock.
Since 1972 the members of the Rainbow Family, this general name is for everyone who throws these
festivals, announce on gatherings in nature for a week to a month, that in them the people will live an
amount of time in a free community with peace, love and flirting with believes of the new era.
Rainbow, together with the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada desert, is one of the many famous
anti-culture festivals in the world.

Ido tells that in a festival in the Dead Sea, Noam and him met a tourist who introduced them to the Mayan
calendar. The curiosity sent Noam to travel in Argentina. There he met the local Galactic Community, and
he sent an E-mail to his friends in Israel that hes about to establish a similar community here in Israel.
Thats how they ended up reaching to Ofer Israeli (land owner), an ex-worker of the Company for
Protection of the Nature of Israel, a travel-guide in Sinai and for nature-survival-workshops and also a
known figure in the local Rainbow community. Ofer Israeli bought the land back in the 90s, between Jat
and Klil. He once tried to establish here a similar community, but the project failed. He didnt want to
elaborate on the subject, and just said that in continuance to his attempt he rents the land to the Galactic
residents in an annual contract agreement, that isnt common in Israel. He doesnt explain the structure of
the contract to me, because I havent reached the awareness level needed for that, and to his estimation: I
will not understand.

Back to the Mother House, Ido helps me to figure out my birth-date according to the Mayan calendar, but
its not just a usual calendar. He figures my birth of date by the holy Tzolkin, which is some kind of a
mathematical matrix with 20 lines that on top of each line theres a primitive drawing, and in the 13t h line
theres different colors.

After some calculations he tells me I am a magnetic sorcerer. I ask him if it is good or bad, and he says: Its
excellent. You have powers that make people want to work for you without trying. You attract people like a
magnet. I wanted to tell him that I am the exact opposite, but his enthusiastic words magnetized me, so I
answered: They do it on their own free will and I suggested hed continue.

On a quick glance to the Altar I notice a few books by Jose Arguelles, A charismatic new-age-guru and the
founder of Day of Earth and Earth Festival. Arguelles is considered to the ancestor of the new-age trend
of the Mayan culture. When the Galactic are speaking of the Mayan, they quote Arguelles and the modern
translation he gave the Mayan culture, that is influenced by a science fiction classic by Aldous Huxley and
by the book Chariot of the Gods by Erich von Daniken, I ask him about the Arguelles, but Ido ignores my
question and brings a historic calendar that shows how spiritual breakthroughs were happening in
different places in the world to Buddha and Yirmiyahu the prophet, Moses and the Mayans. We are still
absorbing the knowledge of all the theories, which is an appendix in cosmic galactic knowledge.
In the evening the Mother House filled up with people. An old friend of Ofer Israeli arrives with his
children, who were elementary school age. They came to visit and help in preparations for the festival.
Another family also arrived to establish a big tent for a summer house.

Noa made everyone dinner. This time no prayers and humming. But theres singing and guitar playing.
Yasmin, who Ido introduces as his companion, reaches close to him and says to him: Its our time, why
wont we go to the tent? but eventually it did not happen. Ido explains that the women know what they
want. And we look at one of the women who is holding a baby, and another one who moved to the sounds
of the music. Ido explains that relationship in their place is connected to many connections. I am not
limited for being with one woman for a month or even a day. I can have babies with her, but I can still be with
other women. The women can do so as well with the men of the community.
I try and join the sing along. Aaron, one of the singers who used to run a sales business in malls in the
United States, explains to me that hes in the state of a wealthy awareness sense. He lives in infinite wealth.
And sometime wealth is not what we have today. Sometimes wealth comes from living simple. We have a
magic hat, he says, and points to a hat hanging on the wall in the kitchen. Ever since I am here this hat is
always full. We are not lacking anything never.

And that is how you guys make a living?

Yes. It provides us with a basic level; food, construction materials, arts supplies. Everyone has his own life as
well. If he wants a cellular phone, those are personal expenses. For example, I make wooden chairs for
meditation and sell them, and I decided how much money I put in the hat. There is no surveillance and
guidance on how much money anyone needs to put in the hat. We live in harmony, everyone gives what he can
and needs at the very moment. Some have more and some have less.
And what about future economic? Arent you afraid to find yourself helpless at elderly?
I have lost the fear in my life. The keys are always inside the car. In my tent I never close or lock anything. You
can not put locks, theyll never be enough. Therell always be the fear of what if But when the what if does
not exist, theres a complete sense of release and full believe in the big wind. Fear is an illusion, and its not
ours, fear is primitive. It comes from the place of lacking. Im not afraid. I live in the most free form of life. If we
take the last year, I feel that the experiences that Ive went through are parallel to a complete life of a person.
Later hed tell me how theyll sell tickets for the festival for 300 NIS each and what will they do with the
money; Buy a bus, install a teepee tenet on it with amplification equipment, and start driving through Israel
and play music.
Aaron disappeared and I was listening to the harmonic singing. Noa, that kissed a tall guy that presented
himself as a musician that could play any instrument in dinner, was now sitting next to him when he was
playing the violin, but she was kissing the tourist with the dreadlocks that helped Ofer Israeli to plant
seedlings earlier. I look around and dont really understand what is going on there. But I am ignoring it.

I am preparing for sleeping in the Mother House. Not very far from me, theres an old lady who answers
to the name Lilith and looks a little like a fairytales witch. At two in the morning the place filled up. Shelly
arrives with a friend. Noam and Ido come in, and the friend of Shelly stares at Noam long and starts to sing
an Indian song. I try to understand once and for all, what is the thing that really gathered this camp of
Rainbows, and what keeps them as a tribe and makes them continue in such a different life. Im a magnetic
sun he explains. And I gather them in order to light, and bring to universal unity.
Did your parents visit you here?
Of course. They will come to the festival. They went through a process because we are in here for around 10
years already now.

Do they receive it in understanding?

The biggest breakdown was when I announced to them that I do not intend on going to the army. We let
everyone know we are a part of the army of light. I have other tools, I play the guitar, I do art, my instrument is
not a weapon. The way that I live makes me feel that everyone are my brothers, and isnt taking me to the
cultural threat, their show as enemies, because I learn the cosmic truth and know exactly whats going on.
One thing needs to be admitted. There is something charismatic and magical about the Galactics. The
energies that Ive been filled with when I was staying at their communal house made their ideas about the
world sound reasonable. When it was my time to leave, it was hard for me to say goodbye. And not because
I felt that it is too early. While I was leaving the community was busy with installing fabric pieces to the tent
of the Galactic arts center, and they did it so joyously and enthusiastically and focused on doing, that no one
even noticed me leaving.